Has anyone else seen the new statue of Mary Wollstonecraft that went up this week?
Awful beyond words. It's a tall swirling mass of what I think are supposed to be female bodies, then topped with a tiny naked woman. She looks nothing like Mary; and of course her stomach is flat, her breasts are perky and her eyes are empty, face slightly mean. Generic naked lady with no personality or spirit.
Nothing about it says "revolutionary" or "feminist" or "brilliant thinker" or "important writer." Nothing conveys Mary's points that women must not be caged in expectations of beauty and ornamentation and that we can be soldiers, leaders, intellectuals. Nothing about it would make someone stop and say, "This woman must have been important" and find out more.
I think the explanation is that the statue isn't "of" Mary but what she stands for, but that's horseshit. Why isn't a statue of George Washington depicted with a naked man rising out of dead soldiers, or Shakespeare with his cock and balls out as he stands on a stage? So disappointed and angry.